Nature in Hindu art, architecture and landscape

The article explores the Hindu attitudes towards nature as discerned through art, architecture and landscape. In this transcendental view, nature is seen as manifestation of divinity. The symbolic meanings of natural elements such as tree, mountain, water, and earth in religious thought are described. These meanings form a basis on which the order of nature is represented as a cosmic ideal within sacred landscape and architecture. In the arts and literature, continuity between the natural and human world is expressed as a consequence of natural elements being anthropomorphised as gods and goddesses. Hindu tradition therefore shows little of the duality between nature and culture which is encountered in some other traditions.